With sly wit and a loathsome nature, Opel was released in 1988 by Harvest Records and is a mixture of Syd Barrett unreleased tracks and alternative takes.
Barrett was one of the founding members of Pink Floyd and wrote a great deal of Piper at the Gates of Dawn, which was Pink Floyd’s first release.
Piper at the Gates of Dawn is a very layered and dynamic album and was Barrett’s first and only release with the group. In a hazy affair of sorts, Barrett left the group and was replaced by David Gilmour.
On this album, Barrett can be heard without any clothes or padding as nothing but skeletons are found. His voice sounds a little shaky and the guitar strumming sounds a bit flaky at times, but that is one of the reasons that makes this album worth listening to. It is raw and honest and at times you feel as if you are sitting there with him while he is playing. Literally, you can hear him turning pages or as on “Dolly Rocker,” you can hear someone ask him what the song is called and then hear him answer back.
“It’s called ‘Dolly Rocker’ it’s an old make of dress.”
The album is also filled with odd humor, such as the song Effervescing Elephant, in which the elephant wags his mouth to all the animals in the jungle that the tiger is going to be on the loose and they might get eaten. The rest of the animals spread their tongue disease to one another warning the tiger’s arrival.
The tiger arrives and proclaims that he wouldn’t harm any of the animals because they were too small, but the tiger ends up eating the elephant because he was the chewiest of them all.
If you heard his wordage and the way he sings, you’d laugh a lot harder.
Another pretty entertaining song is “Clowns and Jugglers (Octopus).” This song has a nice rhythm and features Barrett spewing rhymes in a psychedelic hip-hop fashion.
The bass line will stick out at times, and then the song will break down into a dark carnival-funk type movement, which sounds very nice. “Please leave us here, close our eyes to the Octopus ride.”
The songs were recorded between the years 1968-1970. Barrett can be heard using acoustic or electric guitar with no one in the background supporting.
On a few songs, there is other instrumentation, such as “Clowns and Jugglers” as well as on “Gigolo Aunt,” but for the most part Syd is playing and singing on his own.